PREMIER LEAGUE PREVIEW: Leicester eye eight-point gap at the top

Fans will have to wait until Sunday before the weekend’s most exciting matches, but there is still plenty riding on the first batch of Premier League matches as England’s top-flight enters the home stretch.

Leicester City will have the chance to extend their lead at the top of the league to eight points when they travel to Crystal Palace on Saturday, albeit potentially only for 24 hours when Spurs host Bournemouth on Sunday. The Foxes will be hugely confident of overcoming a Palace outfit that has gone completely off the rails since the start of the year. Alan Pardew’s side have taken the fewest amount of points in the Premier League in 2016 (2), as the wait for their first league win in this calendar year continues.

The Foxes clash with Palace isn’t the only notable fixture on Saturday, however. West Ham will have the chance of replacing Manchester City in the top-four, but it means they will have to beat Chelsea in west London, which has proved tricky in recent history. Slaven Bilic’s side haven’t even scored in their last 420 minutes of action at Stamford Bridge, but they have notably saved their better performances for the bigger teams this season, which should give the Hammers hope of overcoming a Chelsea outfit that has nothing left to fight for this season.

At the other end of the table, Newcastle and Sunderland will battle it out in the latest instalment of the Tynewear derby. Sunderland are usually the ones that change their manager this late in the season in an attempt to salvage their season, but Newcastle have done so this time around. Rafa Benitez will have seen positives in their 1-0 defeat to Leicester in his first game in charge and he will now be targeting a derby win to kick-start their season. The Magpies can leave the bottom three with a win, and in doing so, that would push the Black Cats back into the relegation zone. Sunderland, however, have won the last six derby matches and Newcastle will have to get that monkey off their back in order to win on Sunday.

Sunday finishes with Spurs against Bournemouth, but most of the attention will be on the Manchester derby. Defeat for United would spell the end of their chances of finishing in the top-four, whereas defeat for City could leave them with the prospect of welcoming Pep Guardiola without Champions league football next season. Neither are in good form, but it’s the result that matters more here, not the performance.

What match are you looking forward to most in the Premier League this weekend? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below